Carried: Tear Duct Problems

It shows up as grief held back, a refusal to touch an underlying depression from early maternal deprivation, out of a fear of crying oneself to death and a belief that one has no right to mourn or to impose one's feelings on anyone. The tears back up; the long-resisted grief is never released. It was learned in a household where feeling sorry for oneself was treated as evil. What it asks for is to let a little of the grief flow, with someone who allows it.

I don't let myself grieve, because I'm afraid if I start I'll cry myself to death, and anyway I've no right to.

The Heliades, who wept for their fallen brother until they hardened into trees, their grief no longer able to flow, sealed as amber in the bark. The form implies a task: to let the grief run before it hardens.